FINRA Lawyer Blog

Two recent FINRA arbitration awards highlight increased focus by FINRA arbitrators concerning discovery abuses by litigants. FINRA’s rules require cooperation of the parties in discovery (Rule 12505) and specifically empower the arbitrators to issue sanctions for lack of cooperation, failing to comply with the discovery rules, or frivolously objecting to the production of documents or…

FINRA issued its summary of disciplinary actions reported for June 2012. Certain actions are noteworthy and are indicative of regulatory trends effecting broker-dealers and registered representatives. Herskovits PLLC comments on the following regulatory actions: Net Cap Violations Freedom Investors Corp. (CRD #23714, Brookfield, Wisconsin), Joel ReidBlumenschein (CRD #1372334, Registered Principal, Pewaukee, Washington) and Gary Lee…

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) views its mandate as investor protection and as such, they have given notice that a new suitability rule, Rule 2111, will go into effect on July 9, 2012. As long as there have been investors and brokers, there have been people who take advantage and people who are taken…

Regulators are examining whether Morgan Stanley, the investment bank that shepherded Facebook through its highly publicized stock offering last week, selectively informed clients of an analyst’s negative report about the company before the stock started trading. Rick Ketchum, the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-policing body for the securities industry, said Tuesday…

French investors urged New York’s top court on Wednesday to reinstate their lawsuit over losing $43 million out of $50 million they put into two structured investment vehicles. The investors claim Barclays Bank, Standard & Poor’s and two management companies were complicit in leaving investors with plummeting securities shortly before the Wall Street collapse. Oddo…